My daughter attended a small, private all-girls high school in western Massachusetts. Part of the school’s mission was to develop strong, confident and authentic young women.

I will never forget the day that the parents of new students were assembled in a room for an orientation address by the school’s dean of students. After introductions and a warm welcome, the dean asked us not to respond to every difficulty our daughters might face in the coming year by calling the school. That, she said, was sending the wrong message, for we would effectively be telling our children: “It’s O.K., honey. We know that you can’t handle it. We’ll take care of things for you.”

I think of that day every time I read a new story about the admissions scandal. How sad that these parents had such little faith in their young adult children.